These 10 States Are The Most Vulnerable To Online Identity Theft – Are You At Risk?
Identity theft is a money issue that just didn’t exist 50 years ago and the holiday season always sees an upswing in online shopping. Unfortunately, all of the online shopping and increased use of credit cards leads to a rise in online identity theft and fraud.
An Experian survey found that nearly a quarter of survey respondents (24%) were victims of identity theft or fraud during the holidays.
These security breaches don’t just occur on smaller websites. The number of breaches in 2021 has already topped the number in 2020 and companies like Facebook, T-Mobile, and Volkswagen all experienced data breaches this year. Long story short, even when if think a website is too big to get hit, hackers and scammers will usually find a way.
To determine which states are most susceptible to identity theft and fraud, WalletHub compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 14 key metrics and released a report on 2023’s States Most Vulnerable to Identity Theft & Fraud.
Here are the states most vulnerable to identity theft
Most Vulnerable States
1. Washington D.C.
2. Deleware
3. Louisiana
4. Rhode Island
5. Colorado
6. Pennsylvania
7. Georgia
8. Alabama
9. Florida
10. New York
Here is a rundown of the ten states with the fewest reported identity theft cases in 2022:
- Montana
- Arkansas
- Wyoming
- Maine
- Indiana
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Oklahoma
- Wyoming
- Iowa
TIPS ON AVOIDING IDENTITY THEFT & FRAUD
- Sign Up for Credit Monitoring: Credit monitoring is the best way to keep tabs on your credit report. We suggest using Credit Karma as a simple way to monitor your credit.
- Emphasize Email Security: Make sure to use a secure password on your main email address and establish two-step verification for this account.
- Leverage Account Alerts & Update Contact Info: Setting up online management for all of your financial accounts (e.g., credit cards, loans, Social Security), and keeping your phone number, email address and street address up to date will make them harder for identity thieves to hijack.
- If The Offer Is Too Good To Be True, It’s Probably A Scam: Just use common sense before putting your personal information into any website.